Waterfall Counter

Posted on March 10, 2014

Here is our recent Carrara White waterfall counter being installed!

You probably see many waterfall counters in magazines or design websites these days. Waterfall is a custom design element that can make your kitchen more dramatic look with patterned material (i.e. Carrara here) or more modern clean look with consistent patterned material (i.e. engineered quartz). Below is our Bronze quartz counter with waterfall.

There are a couple of ways to handle waterfall. Please contact our sales team for options.

Namib Sky Quartzite Prefab Counter tops

Posted on June 1, 2013

Namib Sky Quartzite Counters. The wavy gray seen is large quartz crystal out croppings. It is currently out of stock due to its immense popularity. We anticipate it come back in stock mid July in 1.5″ flat and ogee bullnose edge.

Namib Sky is white with a silver gray crystals which works great with medium and dark counter tops.

We cut the 4 inch backslashes to accommodate for the electrical outlets.

The weather such as heavy rain combined with wind can delay or prolong a tile, granite, or quartz installation. Our installers face two issues, the material getting wet and the San Francisco Bay Area traffic. I will only discuss with you the former since you all know how well we drive in bad weather.

When the guys are expecting heavy rain, our granite and tile installation teams pack their tents so they and the material are not rained on. When the granite, quartz and plywood get wet, since it affects the drying time, cutting and worker safety. Tile installation is affected less since the bonding material, thin set is water based unlike granite and quartz which relys on a polyurethane or silicone based adhesives.

This is a makeshift tent when my guys were cutting tile in light rain. During heavy rain, Artistic Stone’s Install teams will use the same tents as one may use for a Tail Gate Party before a football game. Go 49ers!!!

When installing in at freezing or below freezing temperature, the glue will not adhere to the granite surface because is too cold. This a common challenge for jobs in Truckee, Tahoe or the Sierra Foothills. When installing in these conditions it takes longer than normal California weather for the glue to bond.

In our experience 90% of the rainy day jobs get installed. We leave it to our installers descretion to decide whether they proceed or postpone. Our installers decisions is based providing you the best install and their safety since wet surfaces are slippery to walk on and counter tops are heavy(15 pounds per square foot).

If you have any specific questions or concerns, please call project manager, Dave in San Leandro about the challenges of rainy day installs.

Modern Zen: Andromeda White Kitchen with Modern Wood inspired tiles.

Posted on May 26, 2012

In this Palo Alto Mid Century Modern Japanese inspired decor, our client replace her old Formica counter tops with Andromeda White granite. A grey green swirly stone from Brazil. The backsplash is a 12×24 inch Italian tile called Glamour Beige with a baby liner of Stone, Glass and Shell.

Honed down bling with flare. Emerald Pearl Granite

Posted on October 19, 2011

The first time I saw honed Emerald Pearl was over several slices of pizza at the Mariott Hotel bar in Washington DC. Since then, I was wondering when we would install it in a kitchen. Finally, we found a savvy couple who happen to enjoy cooking both in lab and in the kitchen.

The counter tops show off honed Emerald Pearl from Norway. We honed the surface at our shop by removing the shine off the surface. The couple complemented this with pearly white 3″x6″ subway tiles.